Geordi La Forge
Geordi La Forge held the rank of lieutenant commander and was the chief engineer of the USS Enterprise-D and is currently the chief engineer onboard the USS Enterprise-E, both under Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Early life Geordi La Forge was born on February 16th, 2335 in the African Confederation, on Earth, to parents Captain Silva La Forge and noted exozoologist Commander Edward M. La Forge. Due to a birth defect, he was born blind. As an adult he stood 170 centimeters tall and was right-handed. Young Geordi spent time with both his parents as a child, sometimes separately. For a time, Geordi lived with him while Edward studied invertebrates in the Modean system. On other occasions, Geordi would instead be away from Edward, on outposts near the Romulan Neutral Zone with mother Silva. Sometime prior to 2340, Geordi was trapped alone in a burning building; he later remembered this as one of the scariest moments of his life. When he was five years old, Geordi received his first VISOR, which allowed him to see (although not the same way the average Human does) for the first time in his life. Geordi went to Zefram Cochrane High School sometime prior to 2353. Early Starfleet Career He attended Starfleet Academy from 2353 to 2357, where he excelled at engineering and idolized Zefram Cochrane. His first deep space assignment was as an ensign aboard the USS Victory, under Captain Zimbata. In 2362, La Forge participated in the investigation of the disappearance of the Federation colony on Tarchannen III. La Forge later transferred to the USS Hood, where he served under Captain Robert DeSoto. On the Hood La Forge knew William T. Riker, but only professionally. Riker knew La Forge the longest out of all of their shipmates aboard the Enterprise, as the two would develop a close friendship during their later years together at that assignment. Starfleet Career Enterprise-D In 2364, he was named conn officer on the USS Enterprise-D under Captain Jean-Luc Picard. While investigating the deaths of the SS Tsiolkovsky crew, La Forge contracted a variant of polywater intoxication, causing him to lose his inhibitions. Dr. Beverly Crusher used La Forge to test her vaccines and was able to develop a cure. The first test of his abilities as a starship commander came during an encounter with an advanced planetary defense system in orbit of planet Minos. With the senior officers' away teams entrenched at the planet's surface, La Forge carried out the order to send the Enterprise's saucer section to safety, then returned to Minos with the stardrive section to work out a way of evacuating the away teams. While battling a cloaked drone in orbit, he devised a strategy to lure the opponent into the planet's atmosphere, thus revealing its location. In this tense situation, he proved that he had the ability to successfully lead a skeleton crew to victory. His special vision was impressively demonstrated during an away mission to the drifting freighter Batris. The VISOR data was directly transmitted to the Enterprise-D's main bridge viewscreen, via his visual acuity transmitter, allowing the bridge crew to gain an insight into Geordi's view of the world and to follow the progress of the mission until the datalink failed. In 2365, La Forge was promoted to full lieutenant. He transferred from the command division to the operations division and was named chief engineer. Over the course of the next several years, it became evident that this transfer had been a wise decision: his technical and analytical abilities, his versatility and his cooperative leadership style were very well suited to the requirements of a senior engineering officer aboard a major starship. Just one year later, in 2366, he was promoted again to lieutenant commander. At one point in his career as a young officer, La Forge was assigned to pilot Jean-Luc Picard on an inspection tour. En route to their destination, Picard made an off-hand remark about the shuttle's engine efficiency not being what it should. In response to this, La Forge stayed up all night refitting the shuttle's fusion initiators. When Picard discovered what La Forge had done the following morning, he knew right then that he wanted La Forge with him on his next command. Enterprise-E After the destruction of the Enterprise-D, he transferred to the new Sovereign Class USS Enterprise-E in 2372. He, and the Enterprise, then spent a year on a shakedown cruise. Some time between 2371 and 2373, he had received ocular implants capable of even more impressive functions than his VISOR. This advanced technology no longer required an external apparatus to see. VISOR La Forge, who was born blind, often wore a VISOR, a crescent-moon-shaped device attached at the temples, that allowed him to see. It enabled him to "see" throughout the electromagnetic spectrum, from heat and infrared through light and radio waves. With the cybernetic technology connected directly to his brain, it required such a complex and broad-based input that the user had to concentrate to focus on one area. Eventually, he received ocular implants with electric blue irises and even more abilities. Category:Human Characters Category:Starfleet Characters Category:Non Playable Characters